


Single Notch of the Sun's Journey

by Anonymous



Category: Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Derogatory Language, Dubious Consent, F/M, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Sexism, Sex for Favors, Sexual Violence, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 22:24:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17312954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: While bargaining with a trio of giants, Loki resorts to the oldest trick in the book. In the end, things may turn out differently from what any of them expected...





	Single Notch of the Sun's Journey

The sword gleamed in the sun, so pristine that if Segghilmir hadn't known better, he would have assumed it freshly formed from the light itself.  
  
Starkbrunn admired it too, stroking the flat of the sword like caressing a lover. "The dwarf who wrought the blade assured me it would gain the strength of every man whose blood it drank. True or not, it happily drank his, too."  
  
Though it was a warm day for falltime in Jotunheim, Segghilmir wrapped his cloak tighter around himself. His eldest brother was in the habit of relating every kill he had had with the Sunbane at the slightest provocation, and already they had sat in this copse for the better part of an hour as their visitor pleaded his case and then with equal measures praise and needling insults had goaded Starkbrunn into unveiling his treasure. He wasn't the only one growing bored: his other brother, Gunnbjorn, focused less on the conversation and more on the wrinkly apple he had plucked on their way to the meeting place, biting off what remained of its flesh before tossing the core into some nearby brambles.  
  
Their visitor was either unaware or unconcerned by their disinterest. He too was of the blood of the giants, but the symbols stitched into his fine clothes marked him as one of the Aesir, much like the scars on his lips marked him as Loki Laufeyjarson and therefore as trouble. Segghilmir had only seen him in passing before, and though he had heard plenty of tales, they hadn't prepared him for his voice, which was pleasing even when it was dripping with insult, or his eyes, which never looked quite right no matter his expression.  
  
Those eyes danced now as they beheld the blade with a kind of hushed awe.  
  
"I take it's to your liking." Starkbrunn turned to sword in his hands. "I reckon it could lop off the All-Father's head in a single stroke."  
  
Loki nodded eagerly. "Not even Thor himself could stand against he who wields this sword."  
  
"A battle we know you are eager to witness, little one." Gunnbjorn wiped the last of the apple off his neatly trimmed beard. "But you are yet to convince us it is in any way in our interests."  
  
"Raiding Asgard is dangerous, even with the Sunbane," Starkbrunn agreed.  
  
Loki frowned. "An insult against me is an insult against all my kin. Are you not my brothers?"  
  
With slow, deliberate movements, Starkbrunn sheathed the sword. "Though my sister has long departed, I yet acknowledge Byleistr as brother and kin. Byleistr may well yet consider you kin. But you and I are not brothers, and I wager any words suggesting such would sound just as unseemly to your kin in Asgard as they do to me now."  
  
"I wish to serve them much more than mere unseemly words. I thought I had made that clear."  
  
"What my brother means, little one, that you must offer us payment for this deed." Gunnbjorn removed his gaze from the errant thread dangling from his sleeve and fixed it on Loki. "No oaths or familial ties bind us, nor is glory alone sufficient for such a cause."  
  
Starkbrunn nodded. "I enjoy a gamble, but it must be one where we serve to win far more than we may lose."  
  
Loki shrugged. "If you succeed, you may plunder Asgard as you please. Surely you have heard of the great treasures the All-Father has hoarded in his halls, and the charms of the Asynjar?"  
  
Segghilmir barely heard Loki's ensuing words about the mighty weapons and magical bounty of Asgard, and the peerless beauty of Freyja the Fair. His focus was fixed on how Loki came to live as he told his tale, how animatedly he gestured with his hands, and on the constant change on his fair features and strange eyes.  
  
Gunnbjorn was still leaning ahead, listening with a kind of distant amusement. Starkbrunn, meanwhile, was finally growing bored of the meeting, and ultimately raised his hand to cut Loki off mid-sentence.  
  
"That won't do, son of Laufey. The treasures may be as wondrous as you claim, but we have wealth plenty as is, and with the Sunbane have no need for other magical blades. In any case, it is well known your words are worth less than the air used to utter them."  
  
"Speak to someone else who has heard of them, then."  
  
Starkbrunn shook his head. "I have made my decision. If you had brought us some advance payment, I would have considered it, but as you appear to have brought with you nothing of value but your clothes, you may as well save your breath and return home."  
  
Loki opened his mouth to respond, snidely by the growing sneer on his face, but Gunnbjorn interrupted him with a low, dark laugh.  
  
"Perhaps he has planned different pay for us, brother," he said when Starkbrunn turned to frown at him. "You cannot have forgotten what else he is famous for."  
  
They both turned to stare at Loki, Starkbrunn with growing scorn, Gunnbjorn with rekindled, almost hungry attention. Segghilmir found himself likewise staring, the meaning of the words slowly sinking in. There wasn't a single giant in Jotunheim who hadn't heard of the Aesir's betrayal against the builder of their walls and Loki's part in it. Other rumors circulated likewise, not quite as depraved, but likewise carving a very specific picture of the nature of Loki son of Laufey.  
  
Loki met their stares with a shameless smile. "I see my reputation precedes me." He stood up and stretched, his gaze drifting through them. "Perhaps I can indeed provide you with a token of my appreciation. If not with my clothes, then with what is underneath them."  
  
Starkbrunn snorted, "Scant payment, that. And I never lay with men." All the same, Segghilmir couldn't help but notice he didn't refuse outright.  
  
"Nor am I asking you to. I am quite ready to take whatever shape you find the most pleasing." Loki took a single, coy step towards them. "I bet I can make all three of you as happy as you have ever been in your lives before the sun has traveled further by a single notch."  
  
Starkbrunn deliberated for a long while, exchanging a look with the broadly smiling Gunnbjorn before finally speaking up. "Very well. If you can satisfy all three of us here and now, we will consider rallying to your aid."  
  
"That is not what I asked."  
  
"It is my final offer."  
  
Loki didn't move, but his smile was a lot colder. "I see." He let out a soft sigh. "It's a deal, then."  
  
Gunnbjorn nodded at once, then both of his brothers turned to look at Segghilmir. He found himself nodding, too. Surely, he told himself as Loki and Starkbrunn spoke words to make their agreement binding, Loki wouldn't have agreed to the trade if he found it unjust.  
  
But agree he did. As soon as the oath was in place, he fixed his eyes on Starkbrunn. "We may as well begin, then. What do you wish for?"  
  
Starkbrunn leaned back against the fallen tree he had rested against during their meeting. His scorn was still apparent in his eyes, but Segghilmir could tell he was beginning to enjoy himself. "You spoke very well of Freyja before, but I would rather see her with my own eyes."  
  
"How original." But already as he said so, Loki was changing. Segghilmir looked on in amazement as his hair lengthened and lightened to gold and the shape of his face and body ebbed and flowed until a short moment later, a gorgeous woman in men's clothes stood smiling at Starkbrunn. If the real Freyja had been present, only the scars on this woman's lips and the strange gleam in her eyes could have told the two of them apart. She was still smiling as she began to disrobe, shapely contours and supple white limbs appearing and disappearing beneath the folds of cloth before she stood before them draped only in her long golden hair trailing down her collarbone and reaching to her navel.  
  
Segghilmir felt light-headed. He was less affected by the charms of women than most, but even he couldn't take his eyes away from the loveliness of her breasts or the smooth, soft skin of her stomach and legs, and the perfect curve of her hips. There was a single freckle on her upper arm he only spotted after a long time spent staring, such a minute detail which made him all the more convinced that surely, somehow, this was the real Freyja in flesh.  
  
His eyes wandered lower still and his cheeks burned. Something about the woods and the fact his brother were right there made the situation obscene even before anything had happened.  
  
Starkbrunn, meanwhile, gazed at the woman with satisfaction. A moment later, he stood up and was already unlacing his leggings as he walked over to the woman, growling as she smiled up at him and threw her slim arms around his neck. In turn, he grabbed her head and dragged her into a plundering kiss.  
  
"You look the part," he admitted when their lips parted, tightening his hold and allowing his hands to roam downwards towards her shapely behind. "You feel the part as well." He gave her a wolfish grin which for a moment made him look more like Gunnbjorn than himself. "The only question remaining is whether you fuck the part."  
  
Without further warning, he flipped her around and pushed her towards the nearest tree. She didn't require further instructions to take hold of it and bend over, at which point he dug one hand into the flesh above her hip and used the other to guide his cock inside her, shoving harshly and eliciting a moan that was too loud to be entirely real and too breathless to be entirely faked. Grunting in satisfaction, he braced his free arms against the trunk and began thrusting.  
  
Segghilmir wanted to look away, quite happy to continue his life without a vision of his eldest brother's swivelling buttocks burned into his mind, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the woman's flushed face. From what he could tell from her profile, she enjoyed herself immensely, moaning every time Starkbrunn plunged himself fully inside her and urging him on by jerking her hips, unaware or indifferent to the fact Gunnbjorn was massaging his hardening cock through his leggings as he greedily watched every second of the action, or else — and this thought made Segghilmir flush — actually enjoying the audience.  
  
It didn't last long. Soon, Starkbrunn grunted and shoved himself as deep inside her as he could, slamming the weight of his much larger body against hers as he filled her body with seed. They stood still for a while, limbs shaking, till finally Starkbrunn pushed himself away from the tree and tucked himself back in his leggings.  
  
"That was fast," Gunnbjorn mocked, leaving his seat as he did so.  
  
Starkbrunn grunted. "He didn't boast in vain." He walked back to the fallen tree and sat down with sated grunt, glowing with effort and satisfaction.  
  
The woman, meanwhile, had straightened herself. There was a glint of amusement in her eyes which suggested to Segghilmir that she agreed with Gunnbjorn's assessment, but there was a slight frown when she turned to look at the seed slowly trickling down her thighs. It was gone when she turned towards Gunnbjorn. "Would you also like to partake in Freyja the Fair?"  
  
"No. Give me someone small and dusky." Unlike Starkbrunn, Gunnbjorn removed his shoes and leggings entirely. "And none of that sluttishess. I want a proper demure maiden."  
  
The woman rolled her eyes, but changed accordingly. The young woman she became was, if anything, even more stunning, with lustrous dark hair and long, glittering eyelashes. Her entire body was smaller, and Segghilmir only caught a glimpse of dark, curly hair on her nethers before she moved her hands to cover it, averting her gaze with a shyness everyone present knew to be faked, but which Segghilmir still found very affecting.  
  
There was nothing fake, however, about the sudden smirk rising to her lips. "It's good to know that even in your wildest dreams you cannot imagine a woman would be eager to sleep w— ah!" Her mouth remained open as Gunnbjorn twisted her head backwards by yanking at her hair, offering no resistance as he forced her on her knees and pushed his cock between her teeth.  
  
Again, Segghilmir found himself incapable of looking away, so he was there to witness the surprise and discomfort around the woman's eyes. It didn't last long: Gunnbjorn only gave a few more tentative thrusts into her mouth before releasing her, only to grab her by the hair once more and pull her to the ground. She tried to twist away as soon as he let go, but by then his hand was on her neck, holding her still as he spread her trembling legs, his grin widening at every ineffective bit of resistance.  
  
She screamed when Gunnbjorn forced himself in her. Segghilmir only realised he had stood up and taken a step towards them when he felt a large hand on his shoulder, and turned to see a warning look on Starkbrunn's face.  
  
"He agreed to this," he reminded him. "He's getting paid."  
  
Segghilmir swallowed and turned to see Gunnbjorn had tightened his hold on the girl's throat, forcing out small sobs from her while pounding her against the ground. "He looks to be in pain."  
  
"You've met whores before. He's enjoying every moment." Starkbrunn let go of him. "Let your brother have his fun."  
  
Gunnbjorn was indeed having fun. His eyes were glowing like they usually only did in the thick of battle as his hands looked for new parts of the girl's skin to bruise. "Beg for it, slut," he said, despite not once giving her a chance to beg, shoving back and forth at an increasingly cruel speed which elicited no words, only monosyllabic cries. Soon enough, she had stopped fighting it altogether, and merely lay there with a stupefied look on her face, a single tear running down her face and onto the ground. Segghilmir wondered at how she seemed to instinctually know what Gunnbjorn wanted, finding himself hoping it was indeed an act.  
  
Before he could make a fool of himself by intervening, almost as swiftly as Starkbrunn had, Gunnbjorn pushed himself in to the hilt and spilled inside her, then reluctantly pried his hands from her throat. As he pulled away, Segghilmir saw Loki had taken the maiden part of Gunnbjorn's request literally and tried not to grimace.  
  
Like Starkbrunn, Gunnbjorn was red-faced and winded, but unlike Starkbrunn, he was still grinning from ear to ear. "Best in a long time," he said as he returned to his seat, paying no more attention to the girl as he got dressed. He saw Segghilmir's stare and winked. "It's never as much fun if they want it."  
  
Meanwhile, the girl had stood up, her face carefully blank. She looked far worse than she had after Starkbrunn's go, with purple bruises marring her skin, and streaks of blood joining those of seed on her thighs Segghilmir found himself desperately hoping had all come from her maidenhead. Still, there was no apprehension in her eyes when she turned towards him. "And what would you like?"  
  
Segghilmir's mouth was dry. Had she really been enjoying herself after all? Could he ever be entirely sure? His musings didn't last long till they were interrupted by Starkbrunn: "Just tell him. We haven't got the entire evening."  
  
Segghilmir sighed. His brothers already knew of his preferences. "I would like a man."  
  
The woman gave a sigh of relief. "You hesitated for so long I feared you'd say goat. What kind of man?"  
  
Segghilmir hesitated again. "As you were before, when you first came to speak with us."  
  
Starkbrunn snorted. "Our brother has always lacked in imagination."  
  
Gunnbjorn smiled an indulgent smile, but Loki said not a word. Another change, and he was back in what Segghilmir had to believe was his true form. In a way, he still bore some resemblance to a woman: the reddish hair on his body was merely a light dusting, and combined with his narrow waist and beautiful face, he was very charming indeed, only marred by the lingering bruises from Gunnbjorn's treatment of him. His soft cock looked nice too, neither too large nor small.  
  
There had been relief on Loki's face as he assumed his current form, but now he gazed the Segghilmir with a contemplative look he hadn't given his brothers. "Well?"  
  
His flesh was already burning. "Just... lie down any way you find comfortable."  
  
Loki did so without murmur, stretching himself out on the dry leaves. Segghilmir had expected him to take to his stomach, but instead he gazed upwards, casting curious glances upwards.  
  
He stumbled with the laces of his leggings and knelt down next to him, scarcely daring to touch the body stretched out for him.  
  
Suddenly, Loki smiled and spoke in a voice so low Segghilmir doubted his brothers caught it. "It's fine. I'll make it simple for you." With that, he raised his knees up to his chest and held them there with his arms underneath his knees, practically presenting himself.  
  
"I can just..." Segghilmir found himself whispering, too.  
  
Loki nodded. "Put it right in if you wish."  
  
Even with this confirmation, Segghilmir found his hands trembling as he placed a tentative finger on Loki's hole and pushed it in, marvelling how readily it sank in with only the slightest resistance. Was this some kind of sorcery, too?  
  
He withdrew his hand and spat into it anyway, giving his cock a few strokes to both slicken it and bring it to its full hardness, then positioned himself, placing his other hand over Loki's, brushing his fingers, and pushed himself in with a single, long slide.  
  
His eyes widened as he saw inch after inch of himself disappear inside that hungry hole as smoothly as he had spent an hour preparing it, with only the slightest burn from lack of lubrication slowing him down. Within moments, he was fully sheathed inside, and he let out a sigh that was equal parts wonder as it was pleasure.  
  
He looked down. Loki had closed his eyes and was breathing heavily, but upon feelings his gaze on him cracked them open and offered him an encouraging nod. Segghilmir began rolling his hips, resisting the growing urge to just push Loki down and rut him as the warmth around his cock tightened every time he pulled out as though it didn't wish to let him go. It was better this way, really.  
  
"Hurry it up," Starkbrunn said somewhere in the distance.  
  
Segghilmir halted mid-stroke, feeling a blush that had nothing to do with sex creeping onto his cheeks. At some point, he had entirely forgotten his brothers were present.  
  
"Let him be. He's having fun." Gunnbjorn sounded very cheerful, which only made it worse. Segghilmir braced his hands against the ground, daring not to move. The reality of what they were doing came crashing down.  
  
A hand brushed against his. Loki's eyes were as strange as ever, but now they were staring at him with almost an expectation. Combined with the inviting warmth still surrounding most of his cock, he gave in to the pleasure, and soon found himself pushing ahead with renewed vigour. Loki closed his eyes again with a satisfied sigh, his previously uninterested cock firming up with every full thrust. Segghilmir reached for it and did his best to stroke it in tandem with the movement of his hips, soon losing the rhythm but keeping at it all the same.  
  
At this, Loki's eyes flew open. For the first time, he appeared to be genuinely seeing Segghilmir.  
  
Somewhere behind him, Starkbrunn sighed. "Does he simply not understand whores?"  
  
"Shh." When Segghilmir glanced over his shoulder he saw that though Gunnbjorn was spent, he was yet languidly touching himself through his leggings as he looked on. "Perhaps his dream is of real romance."  
  
"With an unmanly wretch like that?"  
  
Segghilmir looked away and ignored the words, ignored everything but the hot flesh underneath his hands and the intoxicating grip on his cock which was making it harder and harder to focus on anything but the mounting pleasure.  
  
And with that, he was spent, collapsing on top of Loki with his hand still on his cock, seeing stars.  
  
"Good," Starkbrunn's gruff voice indicated he was turning away.  
  
Segghilmir truied to get up, but he didn't really wish to. He felt bad leaving Loki as he was and, when he was quite sure his brothers couldn't see what he was doing, continued to stroke him.  
  
"I'm sorry," he whispered. He wasn't sure what he was apologising for. Everything, perhaps.  
  
Loki leaned his head up till his mouth was by his ear. "What was your name?"  
  
"Segghilmir."  
  
"Segghilmir." Loki's hand snaked between them and curled up around his, supporting his strokes. "When you come to Asgard, make sure you— oh." He squeezed his eyes shut as he finally spilled, painting their chests with thin white strands. His grip on Segghilmir's hand tightened around the softening cock. "When you come to Asgard, stay to the right of your brothers."  
  
Before Segghilmir could ask why, he removed his hand and crawling from underneath him. He let him go and stood up, hastily relacing himself.  
  
Loki, meanwhile, stumbled to his clothes without a word or a single backwards glance and pulled them on with the casualness of someone dressing after drying from a bath. He said nothing till he was fully clad, at which point he turned his attention towards the sky. The sun was precisely where it had been when they had begun.  
  
He grinned as he turned away. "I look forward to your aid."  
  
Starkbrunn spat on the ground the moment he was gone. "To think any of Byleistr's kin would sink so low."  
  
"Talented, though," said Gunnbjorn. "Very talented."  
  
Starkbrunn grunted. "He may as well cut off his cock and put on a dress for good."  
  
"Perhaps we can persuade him to do just that next time."  
  
This awakened Segghilmir from his thoughts. "What next time?"  
  
Gunnbjorn turned to him with a grin. "You didn't actually believe he was only doing that to persuade us, brother dearest? He'll show up again, mark my words. Just imagine how eagerly he'll show his gratefulness to us after we have raided Asgard."  
  
Segghilmir blinked. "We will?"  
  
Starkbrunn nodded. "You heard of the ring and the ship. Only a fool would turn down a chance like this." A rare grin rose to his face. "Furthermore, I would like to try how the real Freyja compares."  
  
"Hear, hear." Gunnbjorn clapped a hand on Segghilmir's shoulder. "And since you liked Loki so much, perhaps you'll have a chance to catch him the tumult. No need for gentleness then. Or perhaps you'd rather have me demonstrate how a real man deals with sluts in his power so that you get it right next time."  
  
Segghilmir said nothing.

* * *

  
  
In retrospect, they should have fled at the very first arrow whirring past Starkbrunn's ear.  
  
As Segghilmir ran as fast as his legs let him, his feet tangling with unfamiliar roots and his heart in his throat, all he could see was a recollection of the grim determination in the red-headed warrior's eyes as he slew Starkbrunn with a single strike of his hammer, and the cold satisfaction of the woman who shot Gunnbjorn through the neck, and above all the glimmer of happiness in the All-Father's one remaining eye as he crouched to claim the Sunbane where it had fallen from Starkbrunn's slack grip.  
  
It was as if he had expected to claim it all along.  
  
His flight came to a sudden halt as a figure stepped in his path. He halted uncertainly, momentum taking him further downhill till he recognized the person as Loki, unarmed and with an unusually somber expression.  
  
Loki raised a finger to his scarred lips. "You're running straight into an ambush. They only agreed they wouldn't shoot you in the open."  
  
Segghilmir felt nothing as Loki took his hand, allowing himself to be lead onto another path like a cow on a string. His throat was so dry he barely recognized his own voice. "Was this the plan all along?"  
  
Loki said nothing.  
  
He tried again. "Did they die because they were cruel to you?"  
  
"No. Rather, you live because you were kind." Loki paused and pointed ahead. "If you go down this path, you'll find a spot where the Ifingr can be forded without too much trouble. You had better hurry."  
  
Segghilmir took a step down the path, then hesitated. "I will have to avenge my kin. Starkbrunn's sons and daughters will attempt to do so likewise."  
  
"Another day's concern, that." When he still wouldn't move, Loki walked over to him and placed a ghost-like kiss on his lips, then pushed at his arm. "Hurry."  
  
That finally sent Segghilmir's shaking legs stumbling down the path.  
  
He looked back only once to see Loki still watching after him, his hair shining where the mottled light touched it, his expression like a closed book.  
  
He turned and fled, fervently wishing it would be the very last thing he ever saw of Asgard.  
  
The kiss lingered on his lips long after Loki's words had slipped his mind.


End file.
